Labels: composting, urban gardener
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) DATE:5/13/2008 11:49:00 PM How great that Cambridge has started a composting program! Since moving out of the city, we've had a pretty large compost pile going all the time. We take the passive approach -- toss everything on the pile, and wait for nature to take its course. I have a 26-quart restaurant supply pail in the kitchen that we use to haul the compost out to the pile. Some weeks, we fill that pail two or three times. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Julia DATE:5/14/2008 06:49:00 AM I was told that it takes 3-4 months for compost to do it's thing if you turn the mix, and 1 year if you let nature take its course. What have you found with the timing? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) DATE:5/14/2008 09:44:00 AM It definitely takes a year if you use the passive method. Basically our way is to have two piles, one more advanced than the other. Each spring we scrape off the uncomposted material from one pile onto the other pile, and sift the compost that has formed at the bottom of the first pile. We're lucky to have plenty of outdoor space for a double pile. We actually have some neighbors who have several compost piles going, but two seems to work for us.